My PowerShell Profile Configuration

UPDATE 20131028: Added snap-in registration

I thought it would be nice to share my PowerShell profile settings as a starter for new users. It’s rather basic, I only added a few things to make my PowerShell console ready from the start. But first some easy tips to check and if needed create a profile.

Test if you have a PowerShell Profile. Start Powershell and type:

Test-Path $PROFILE

If the result is “False” you don’t have a PowerShell profile. Let’s create one:

New-Item -Path $PROFILE -Type File -Force

This will create an empty profile. Now we can edit the profile file:

Notepad $PROFILE

In this profile I’ve put in the following things:

1. If I’m working as an administrator, I changed the forground color to red to see the difference.
2. I use Dropbox as my central script repository. So I made sure that the start location is my Dropbox directory.
3. I also created a Dropbox drive as an easy entry.
4. Error messages set to green. Like Don Jones, I prefer green. It’s not a error, but a learning experience.
5. Two function to connect and disconnect to Exchange Onlline (Office 365), Of course you need to install the MSOnline PowerShell module.
6. I added a command to register snap-ins for like Exchange 2007 or Quest PowerShell Commands for AD

This is my Profile:

# Change Elevated PowerShell Console Colors
if ($Host.UI.RawUI.WindowTitle -like "Administrator:*")
{$Host.UI.RawUI.ForegroundColor = "Red"}
else 
{$Host.UI.RawUI.ForegroundColor = "White"}

# Set Dropbox as default script location and create Dropbox drive
$WshShell = New-Object -ComObject WScript.Shell
$dropboxpath = $WshShell.CreateShortcut("$env:userprofile\Links\Dropbox.lnk").TargetPath
New-PSDrive -name Dropbox -PSProvider FileSystem -Root $dropboxpath | out-null
Set-Location "Dropbox:\Powershell"

# Change ErrorForegroundColor to Green - it's not an error but a learning experience (Don Jones) and I agree
$privdata = (Get-Host).PrivateData
$privdata.ErrorForegroundColor = "Green"

# Function - Exchange Online Connect
function Connect-ExchangeOnline {
$LiveCred = Get-Credential
$global:Session365 = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionUri https://ps.outlook.com/powershell/ -Credential $LiveCred -Authentication Basic -AllowRedirection
Import-PSSession $global:Session365
}
# Function - Exchange Online Disconnect
function Disconnect-ExchangeOnline {
Remove-PSSession $global:Session365
}

#Register Snapins
pssnapin -Registered | Add-PSSnapin

When you start a PowerShell prompt  and you get a message that running scripts is disabled type:

Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned

A last note, this will not work with Windows RT.